The Artful Science of Photography

Thanks to Leonardo da Vinci, posterity has at least a dim idea that art and science are mysteriously related. Separate exhibitions of contemporary photographs by Harold Edgerton and Catherine Wagner at Cal State Long Beach ponder the question afresh. This is entirely apt because photography itself is an art compounded of two sciences, optics and chemistry.

“Catherine Wagner: Art & Science, Investigating Matter” is a traveling show originated by St. Louis’ Washington University Gallery of Art. It presents about 60 large black-and-white pictures of lab paraphernalia arranged in related groups. One labeled “Degree Freezers,” for example, depicts small refrigerators opened to reveal glass containers of bacteria and viruses used in the study of everything from cancer to HIV and the human genome.

Another display is labeled “Drosophila Stock.” It shows transparent jars of fruit flies that aid in the study of genetics by being so fecund. They can reproduce zillions of generations of themselves in the time it takes a human to deliver one child.

The most striking thing about these images is their banality. They seem to go out of their way to remind us that science is a trial-and-error pursuit demanding countless hours of tedious, boring, repetitive work. But then, so does art.

Some of Wagner’s work teeters on the art-science border. Her picture “Ultra High Vacuum Chamber” looks like a robotic moon-lander covered in silver foil. In reality, it’s probably functional. Aesthetically, it’s disappointing, appearing flimsy and inept. It’s not artistically convincing. Neither is her image “Glove Box.” It shows one of those chambers that allow technicians to reach inside to perform procedures on experimental matter without contamination at either end. It’s the real thing, but in a science-fiction film the special-effects guys would replace it with something sexier.

A few of Wagner’s images exercise some of the fascination of sculpture. Significantly, the ones that do are natural, organic things like fossil fragments of ancient animals or crystals. These earnest, no-nonsense pictures do lighten up once, to give us a chuckle over a shot of a moon rock that looks like a piece of factory-made Swiss cheese.

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“Harold Edgerton: The Science of Seeing / New Works From the Collection” presents about 20 photos from a recent gift from the estate of the well-known pioneer of high-speed stroboscopic camera work.

Mainly they’re in color and mostly familiar from popular reproduction. “Bullet Card” is a showstopper that freezes a bullet tearing through the thin edge of a jack. “Milk Drop Coronet” is only a stop-motion of liquid splashing, but its beautiful pattern is lyric and surprising. “Ouch (Archery)” shows a bowstring pinching the flesh of the shooter and Edgerton unable to resist a folksy gag.

A quality of high-tech parlor trick dogs this work. It’s not, however, problematic enough to drown the authentic sense of wonder that wafts from the pictures. For a moment, Edgerton gives us a sense of what art and science must have been like in ancient days when they were united in a dance between the practical and the visionary.

* California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd.; through Dec. 14, closed Mondays, (562) 985-5761.